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THE summer moonlight was shining into the
sick-room, where, with Richard and his mother
beside him, Robert West was summoning nerve
and courage to tell the story they were waiting so anxiously
to hear. With the assertion that “Anna was my wife,”
he had fainted, and since then a night and a day had intervened,
during which no word of the past had escaped
his lips. But now that he was stronger, he had said to
his mother and brother, “Sit beside me, and if I can I
will tell you of Anna.”

They needed no second bidding, but gathered closely
to him, and there, in the quiet room, Robert West began
the story, in which there was a slight recapitulation of
what he had before told, but which will help to enlighten
the reader with regard to Robert's past.

“I cannot remember the time when I did not love
Anna,” he said, fixing his eyes upon the ceiling. “As
a boy I made no secret of it, but as I grew older I pretended
not to care for her more than for any other, and
called her a little doll, you know, but it was mere

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pretense, for I loved the very air she breathed; and when I
heard she was engaged to Dick, I cried as young men of
twenty-two seldom cry. You know I had then been in
New York two years, and that soon after this I was received
into Uncle Jason's employ, and trusted by him
with everything. For my father's sake, he trusted me,
he used to say, never dreaming how unlike the father was
the son.

“After losing Anna I cared little for my self-respect,
and then first commenced the process of taking five or ten
dollars, as I chanced to need it. This I always replaced,
and so conscience was satisfied, particularly after I found
that other young men, who stood as well as myself, did
the same. I cannot account for it, but I now believe
that my apparent indifference to Anna attracted rather
than repelled her, for when I was at home I used to try
the experiment of being very attentive, just to see how
she would brighten with pleasure, but it was not until
my last visit, made the August before I ran away, that
the idea entered my brain of taking her from Richard.
He was gone for two weeks, you will remember, and I
improved my time to so good advantage that when I
finally left Morrisville, I had won a half promise from
Anna that she would talk with him and ask to be released.
She did not promise this willingly, for her strong
sense of right made her question the justice of such an
act, and all my arguments were necessary to wring that

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promise from her. We were out in the graveyard, Dick
on that little bench,—you know where.”

“Yes, I know;” and Richard's reply was like a
groan, as Anna and Dora came up before him, connected
with that rustic bench.

“It was a moonlight night, and we stayed there a long,
long time, mother thinking we were at some neighbor's
house, while you, my brother, were away, never dreaming
how falsely I was dealing with you. But Anna
thought of you, pleading most for you, even while she
confessed her love for me, and saying that daily interviews
with you made you more like her brother. And
there I had the advantage; I was comparatively a
stranger, while the city air and manner I had studied to
acquire were not without their effect on Anna. She was
almost an angel, but human still, and so the old story
was again repeated. The city fop, with sin enough upon
his soul to have driven that pure young girl from his
sight forever, could she have known it, was preferred to
the country boy. But it was hard work, and more than
once I gave up in despair, as, wringing her little hands,
she cried:

“`O Robert, don't tempt me so. I do love Richard,
or I did before you came, and he is so good, so noble.
God will never forgive me if I deceive him so dreadfully.
Please, Robert, don't tempt me any more.'

“You can imagine how I answered her. There were

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kisses and caresses, and assurances that you would rather
give her up than take her when her heart was not your
own, and so the victory was won, and I acted a most
cowardly part. I made Anna promise not to speak of
me when talking with you, Richard, or hint in any way
that I was the cause of her changed feelings toward you.
I then returned to New York, while she asked to be released
from her engagement. She wrote to me once, bitterly
condemning herself for her deception, as she termed
it, and earnestly begging permission to tell you all, but I
refused, and held her to her promise; and so matters
stood when you decided upon sending her to Boston.
You know she came first to New York to Uncle Jason's,
whose wife is both deaf and half blind, so she was not in
my way at all. After you returned home, Dick, I was
there every night, and as Uncle Jason nodded over his
paper in his study, while Aunt Eliza nodded over her
knitting in the parlor, I had every opportunity for pressing
my suit, rejoicing when I saw how I could sway
Anna at my will. She was easily influenced by those
she loved and trusted—”

Here Robert's voice trembled, and he paused a moment
ere he resumed:

“She believed that I was good, and this belief, more
than anything I could say, lead her to listen to me. She
was to leave on Monday for Boston, and on Saturday I
took her for a drive through the city, and when she

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returned at night she was my wife. How I accomplished
it I can hardly tell, for at first Anna refused ontright, but
she was finally persuaded, and at the house of a clergyman
whom I knew by reputation the ceremony was performed.
It was the original plan that when her visit was
over I should accompany her home and announce our
marriage, after which she should return with me to New
York, but subsequent events made this impossible. My
uncle had commissioned me to telegraph to the friends in
Boston that I would be there on Monday with Anna, and
he kindly gave me permission to remain a few days, or
even longer if I liked. This I professed to have done,
but it was a lie I told my uncle, who, believing Anna to
be Dick's betrothed, had no suspicion that I cared for her
in the least except as my sister. After leaving her at his
door on Saturday night, I purposely did not see her again
until Monday, when, according to arrangement, I went
ostensibly to accompany her to Boston. Anna knew
nothing of my real intentions, and it was some time before
she understood that we were going to Albany instead of
New Haven. In much surprise she questioned me, turning
very white and bursting into tears when the truth
dawned upon her, and she saw how she was becoming
more entangled in the deception. We stayed in Albany
at the City Hotel until Thursday morning, and in those
three days I was, I believe, as perfectly happy as is possible
for mortal man to be. And Anna was happy too.

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In her love for me she forgot all else, and I tasted fully
of the bliss it was to call that lovely, gentle creature wife.
I remained in Boston one night, but Friday found me
again in New York, while one week from the next Satururday
night,—O, mother! if I could only blot out that
Saturday night from the past, but I cannot, and I must
tell you how low your boy fell. Knowing how good and
pure Anna was I resolved that henceforth my life should
be such as she could approve, and to this end I would
avoid all my old associates, I said, and never again frequent
their haunts or come in contact with them. Chief
among these associates was a Stanley, who had first taught
me to play, and who had constantly hovered near me as
my evil genius. On Saturday, he came into my office,
and told me of a rare specimen from Cincinnati who was
terribly conceited, but whom I could beat so easily. `He
has heaps of money,' he said, `and if you choose you can
make a fortune in an hour. Come to-night, and you are
sure to win.'

“Instantly there flashed over me the thought `if
Anna could only dress and live like the ladies of Madison
Square,' but with it came the knowledge of how she would
disapprove, and I hesitated. The temptation was a
strong one, and as I continued to listen I felt my good
resolutions giving way. Just for once, and that should be
the last, I said, consenting to join my comrade, who evidently
believed all he said of the stranger. Ten o'clock

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found me at Stanley's rooms, opposite my antagonist,
whom I at once pronounced a fool. Eleven found me
the winner of a considerable amount. Twelve o'clock,
my lucky star was still in the ascendant, but when two
o'clock of that Sunday morning struck, I was ruined, and
my opponent held my note for $20,000.

“Desperate, distracted, what could I do but forge
my uncle's name for the amount, taking the precaution
to draw from three or four banks where he had funds deposited,
and this I did without a thought of the consequences;
but when I woke to the peril of my situation I
was mad with fear, and determined to run away. But
first I wrote to Anna, telling her I was going, but withheld
the reason why. After the letter was sent I was
seized with a terror lest she by some means should betray
me, and so I be brought to justice. My love for her
was strong, but dread of a prison life was stronger. Of
Uncle Jason I asked and received permission to visit
Morrisville for a week, and when I left him he thought
I was going home, but I went instead to Boston, reaching
there in the night, and next morning hiring a boy to
take a note to Anna. She was alone when it was delivered,
as the family were out on some shopping expedition.
In much alarm she came to the Revere, where I
was to meet her, and there the horrible truth was revealed
that she was the wife of a felon. She had not received
my letter, and what I told her was wholly

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unexpected. She did not faint, nor scream, nor even reproach
me with my sin. She merely sank upon her knees and
prayed that I might be forgiven, while into her eyes and
face there stole a look which I know now to have been
the germ of insanity which afterwards came upon her.

“`Anna,' I said, when her prayer was ended and she
sat with her face upon the table, `I am going to England
in a vessel which sails to-night, and from there to California,
assuming the name of John Maxwell, and you
must not betray me.'

“`Betray you! O Robert!” and the face she lifted
up looked as grieved as if I had struck her.

“`I know you will not do it voluntarily,' I said, `but
you must not make yourself liable to be questioned. No
one knows I am here. No one knows you are my wife,
and no one must know it. Not yet, at least not till it is
settled somehow, and I come back to claim you, or send
for you to join me.'

“Again she looked wistfully at me, and I continued:
`If Uncle Jason knew you were my wife, he would question
and cross-question you until he frightened it out of
you, and I should be captured. I deserve to go to prison,
I know, but Anna, darling, think how terrible for one so
young to be shut out from this world, wearing my life
away. Promise, Anna, and I will be a better man; I
will earn enough to pay it back. Promise, if, indeed, you
love me.'

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